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Nitrogen fixation in termites: Fate of newly fixed nitrogen. Entomologicheskoe Obozrenie, 83, 369–377.īentley, B. A new species of the genus Archotermopsis desneux (Isoptera, Termopsinae) from North Vietnam. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.īelyaeva, N. Cockroaches: Ecology, behavior, and natural history. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 3257–3264.īell, W. Separate and combined effects of nutrition during juvenile and sexual development on female life history trajectories: the thrifty phenotype in a cockroach. Immune function responds to selection for cuticular colour in Tenebrio molitor. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 30, 569–577.Īrmitage, S. Studies on proteins in post-ecdysial nymphal cuticle of locust, Locusta migratoria, and cockroach, Blaberus craniifer. Tokyo: Japan Scientific Societies Press.Īndersen, S. Ishizaki (Eds.), Molting and metamorphosis (pp. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology Special Publications, 1, 1–38.Īndersen, S. How did humans evolve? Reflections on the uniquely unique species. It was the directed circulation of nitrogenous reserves via trophallactic feeding among units of the superorganism rather than their progressive storage in a large, heavily armored body that was the foundation of termite evolutionary success.Īlexander, R.
These include building behavior, cooperative feeding, allogrooming, and most notably, trophallaxis. Termites tipped the evolutionary scale via cooperative behaviors that mitigate the cost or amplify the benefit of a small, fragile morphotype, and were present in rudimentary form in their cockroach relatives. The primary costs lie in increased vulnerability to environment hazards, including predators, pathogens, and desiccation. The chief benefit of an altricial morphotype is suggested to be nitrogen made available by decreasing individual body size and by dispensing with a heavy, melanized cuticle.
Here I suggest that the evolutionary transition to an altricial morphotype in termites is grounded in the economics of utilizing a wood diet, and occurred via a series of sequential steps associated with modifications in social behavior. Given this ancestry, termite divergence involved a substantial leap in body plans, as they are pale, fragile, and miniaturized relative to most cockroaches. Termites are a monophyletic lineage within the paraphyletic Blattaria, with xylophagous cockroaches in the genus Cryptocercus as sister group.
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